Microsoft opened up their E3 press conference highlighting core properties like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3, though they also noted that Xbox Live has 25 million members and its subscribers will receive new content from ESPN. The lion's share of the time and attention, however, was given to Kinect, and the device was of particular interest to Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets.
“With the Kinect motion sensor, games will initially include fitness, dance, sports and kart racing, suggesting that Microsoft is targeting the Wii audience,” writes Sebastian. “Microsoft is planning for a global release of Kinect in November (price point TBD), with 15 titles available at launch. We expect roughly 3M units of Kinect to ship worldwide in CY10, with Microsoft selling Kinect on its own or as part of a hardware bundle. As we previewed, Microsoft also announced the launch of a new slimmer form factor for the Xbox 360, which is 30 percent smaller than the original design and comes standard with a 250GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi for $299.”
1 Comments
June 16, 2010
Ah, if only shipments equalled sell-through... I saw that card being palmed. Anyway, how can one make a believable sales forecast without knowing the price point? Also, that 3 million number counts both stand-alone and bundled sales... not terribly impressive when considered in that light. If Microsoft wants ongoing 3rd party support, and especially the kind of title that drives Kinect sales (i.e., Kinect-only for must-have features), the total installed base will have to be far higher before publishers risk anything on it.